At-Large Director Pam Weber said the students already have interviewed her and Sanders.

“They were very interested in how our government works,” she said.

Later Monday, directors are scheduled to consider applicants for a new Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee. The special meeting is set for 6:15 p.m. at the Creekmore Park community room.

“We’ll be making the appointments in executive session,” At-Large Director Kevin Settle said.

The new committee is expected to have between 20-30 members who will spend 18 months reviewing where they’d like to see Fort Smith in the decades to come. In January, the Board of Directors authorized an agreement with planning consultant Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC for the Comprehensive Plan update at a cost of $339,976.

City Administrator Ray Gosack said Monday’s executive session could take a couple of hours.

“They’ve got 77 applicants,” he said.

On Tuesday, the board will hold a noon study session at the Fort Smith Public Library.

The agenda so far has three discussion items, one of which is updated billboard recommendations from the Planning Commission. Members of the commission have been meeting regularly with industry representatives to hash out new regulations.

Changes to the city’s billboard laws are being considered during a four-month moratorium that began in December on new billboards and digital conversions.

A recommendation that has drawn attention is a new buffer between billboards and residential areas.

“The Planning Commission has recommended 250 feet,” Gosack said. “There currently is no buffer requirement, but some of the directors were talking about a larger buffer, as much as 500 feet.”

During a recent discussion with the Planning Commission, Ryan Zaloudik, real estate manager with advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor, said he is not in favor of a 500-foot minimum distance between billboards and residential areas.

“Once you kick it out to 500 feet, it basically turns the ordinance into a prohibitive ordinance,” he said.

The billboard recommendations will be considered for approval at the board’s last regular meeting of the month, Wednesday, March 27.

“We are not going to have a study session on March 26 because of that meeting the following night,” Gosack said.

The Board of Directors typically meets the first and third Tuesday of each month but will not meet March 19, which falls during spring break for Fort Smith schools.

“We’re going to take spring break off so staff and the Board of Directors can have time with their families,” Settle said.

The final regular meeting of the month was scheduled on a Wednesday because the Fort Smith Public Schools Service Center on Jenny Lind Road, where directors typically gather for their televised meetings, was unavailable Tuesday, Gosack said.

“When we discussed it with the board, they said it was more important to have it televised than on a Tuesday,” Gosack said.